The Spirit and the Letter of the Law

The spirit and the letter of the law have long come in for comment. Certainly we cannot get along without either the spirit or the letter of the law. There must be both. The law is dead without the spirit, and it may be weak without the letter. But one difficulty with overemphasizing the letter of the law is that men may use it without wisdom, without discretion, without taking into account individual situations and circumstances. Another difficulty with the letter is that men make so many laws that they come in conflict and cause confusion. In all organized activities there must be rules and regulations, but there is no rule book made by man that can cover all the individual variations and that can meet all the emergencies. So, even when we have the letter of the law, we must never forget that a large part of the strength of any person or of any people lies in individual resourcefulness and self-reliance, in inventive ingenuity, and in the ability of individuals to think and decide for themselves. For safety and survival, for peace and progress, all people must fit themselves into organized entities, yet history has proved repeatedly that peace and progress and human happiness are impaired when a comparatively few men and a few minds attempt to fit all others into a confining “format.” If men are to be at their best, and if voluntary societies are to be at their strongest and safest, men must have wide latitude within which to use their own initiative. And to the degree to which we attempt to suppress individual initiative, to that degree we tend to trade the strength of free men for the weaknesses of a regimented society. And so, sound safe, freedom would seem to suggest teaching the simple principles of self-reliance and individual initiative, and allowing the free spirit of the soul of man to operate within the limits of a minimum amount of law.